"Decorate a Tree" Math Game

The holiday season is here again!  Yahoo :)  All of a sudden, Christmas has shown up everywhere in the stores.  As I wondered through the Target Dollar Spot and saw some red, white, and green pom poms, an idea came to me.  I thought that it would be fun to create a game for my students that involved winter, holiday fun, and math.

Currently, and throughout the year actually, kindergarten students need to work on one:one correspondence.  And, what better way to practice this but with a fun holiday themed dice game!  The students will roll the dice, count how many pips, and then carefully add that many pom poms to the tree.  

(Did you know the dots on dice/dominoes are called pips?)

I have pom poms, but these were already sorted in holiday colors for me and I couldn't  resist buying these from Target when I saw them. 

I also found this bucket that had the cutest design and was the perfect accompanying size for this game.

This will be such a popular station in my room and my kiddos will want to play it often.  The great thing about this game is that it is so easy to differentiate.  And, if you don't want to buy anything to set this up in your own classroom, you probably have lots of materials already that you can use.

Here are some variations to the game, and suggestions for using different supplies:

*Some students will get one die to practice counting 1-6 and make sure that they are successful in their counting.  You can also you beads - you probably have beads socked away somewhere in your room, right?

*You may give students two dice for those students who are ready for counting one:one up to twelve.  

*You can mix it up and use dice that have numbers, versus the pips.  This example also uses beads.  

*The kiddos will have fun rolling numbered dice and counting out the correct number of glass beads to decorate the tree.

*For a nice challenge, hand some students three dice and mix up the combination of dice - numbers and pips.  Shown below are sequins for the counters.

*Another variation is to have students play each other.  You can have the students in partners and each child rolls their own dice and decorates their tree.  Then, they will verify that each one has the correct amount and determine which one is greater than, less than, or equal to each other?  Here you see foam snowflakes for the counters.  

*I don't have a picture of it, but students can also use a domino as another manipulative to count.

I hope you are able to use these game boards and make learning engaging and fun-filled,  as well as provide individualized math games for each student so s/he is challenged and accountable.

If you are looking for another holiday math game, you might want to check out my packet of M&M Holiday Sorting and Counting.  We do this every year as one of our stations at our winter party and it is quite fun!  There are different versions for you to pick the right math skill for your class, individual student or small group.  

Here are some pictures from our winter party using this packet.

Want other great ideas to make learning engaging this time of year?  Make sure to hop to my friend's blogs for some fun freebies and holiday game ideas, but don't forget to snag "Decorate a Tree" below.  

From Left to Right:

Have the Target Christmas erasers? Have fun counting to 20 with these Christmas Eraser Counting Cards from The Kindergarten Connection.

 Have a blast with blends with these Christmas Tree Blends Puzzles from A Dab of Glue Will Do.

Don't put those erasers away yet! Spin and graph with this fun Winter Race game from Recipe for Teaching.

Grab some dice to roll and dazzle your friends with this fun Decorate a Tree activity from Kindergarten Planet.

Make sure you download "Decorate a Tree" here!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Must Read Monday: Must Read Books About Math

The theme this week for Must Read Monday is must read books about math.  I must admit that I struggled with math as a student in school.  It just wasn't a subject that clicked with me.  The irony of this is that my dad was a mathematician (as well as a meteorologist and had a career in the Navy).  He would try to tutor me and some of those sessions were difficult.  I didn't understand it, and he didn't understand why I didn't "get it" and a few of those sessions ended with me in tears!  Anyone else have this experience???  Fast forward to present day, and teaching math is probably my favorite subject to teach.  One of the reasons I love it so much is that I am determined to make math meaningful and I want it to make sense for my students.  I want them to understand math, to like math, and to feel successful!

The Kindergarten Connection and I would love to know what your favorite book(s) about math are.  You can link up with us and/or leave us a comment down below!

Click, Clack, Splish, Splash by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin is an adorable and simple book about counting to 10, and then counting backwards from 10 to 1 at the end of the story.  This book is by the same authors as Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type.  I like reading this at the beginning of the year since the words, pictures, and objects to count are clear, and made for beginning readers.

Chicka Chicka 1 2 3 by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson is a great book to read at the beginning of the year, and then also to revisit throughout the year.  My students love this story and want to hear it over and over again.  It counts from 1-20 and then by 10's to 100.  It also addresses a little bit of place value with the number zero.

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews is another wonderful book with cute rhymes and counting objects up to 10.  Each page has a different number of dots and those dots are integrated into a picture.  Children can easily relate to this book.  As an extension activity, it is fun to give your students 10 black dots and construction paper, and have them create their own design.

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston is a lovely book that rhymes and focuses on subtraction.  This story starts with 10 turkeys, and then through a series of events, the turkeys leave one by one.  This leads to good conversations about making numbers smaller and I always write the subtraction sentence on the white board and we practice reading the number sentence together.  This book is just one of many that has this particular style (starts with a group of 10 and gets smaller as the story goes on) and they are all great to read throughout the year!

The Mission of Addition by Brian P. Cleary is another fun book that talks about math.  It rhymes and explains what addition is.  There are various scenarios in the book which allow your students to add objects together.  It helps children count "all together" and then also create addition number sentences.  

For More Book Recommendations, please check out:

Must Read Books About the End of the Year

Must Read Books About Friendship 

This post contains affiliate links.

An InLinkz Link-up

Technology Tuesday

Hi!  I am excited to be linking up with Marie from Once Upon a Classroom for Technology Tuesday.

Recently my students teacher's advisor came in and teamed up with Kayla to teach a math lesson.  We all decided that adding, and finding the sum, was a good lesson to work with our extended day kinders on.  Mike, or "Dr. C" to the kiddos, brought iPads from Pacific University for the lesson.  We have iPad minis, but he brought regular iPads and the students were excited to work on the large screen.  He introduced an app called Find Sums.  It turns out that we have this app already loaded on our school iPads.  We have so many apps on our iPads, but I don't have the time to explore each one - is anybody else in the same position?  So, I was glad to see this app in action and I will definitely be using it in my class more.

Here is what the app looks like when you want to start the program.

You press the app and then you see this screen.

Next, you can go into Settings and set the number that the children will be adding up to.  We started everyone off with finding sums to 10.  All you do is press the number and then the children are set up.

The great thing about this game is that it is played with a partner.  The kids loved it too!  They played this for about 20 minutes and stayed engaged the entire time!!!  And, it has the children finding sums in a ten frame.  They are so used to the ten frame and it helped them visualize the missing addend.  

Player A picks a number.

Player B sees 8.  Then has to think - 8 + ? = 10.  Player B makes a choice.

If the choice is correct, the screen will fill in with the appropriate number of apples.

If the answer is incorrect, the screen clears and the students try again.  

Once the kiddos got the hang of 10, we changed their settings.  Some children did Find Sums to 12, 15 and 20.

Here is what the game looks like to start off.  The bottom is full of numbers and the screen has empty ten frames.  As the children pick, the numbers disappear.  When all of the numbers are gone, then you start the game over again.

I was taking pictures at different stages so these do not all match up, but you get the idea!

We even had a couple of students who went up to 100!  It was so great to hear them counting by 10's and 1's.  YES!!!!

I love how this game:

• self corrects
• kept their attention
• had them working on addition skills
• encouraged partner work

In additon, at the end of their session, you can click Progress and check their stats.  If they did not have at least 85% accuracy, we did not move them up a level.  Those students needed to keep practicing at the their current level.  If they had 85% accuracy, then we moved them up a level and then checked in to see how they did.

And...............drumroll............this is a FREE app!!!!!  Woohoo!!!!  

Check it out.  You and your students will love it!

Stop, Swap, and Roll + GIVEAWAY!

I am so excited to participate in the Stop, Swap, and Roll hosted by Melissa at Jungle Learners!

This is such a fun idea!  I was so happy to be paired with Molly from xoxokindergarten.  Molly is super sweet and is a kindergarten teacher in Minnesota who loves to camp with her family. 

It was fun to go shopping in Molly's TpT store xoxokindergarten.  I had a tough decision to make beacause I am terrible with decisions.  However, I have a soft spot in my heart for math materials and so I picked her Reusable Primary Math Stations and Games packet.  I am so glad that I did!  This packet is full of activities for your students to learn and stay engaged in math centers.

As soon as I got the packet I quickly printed materials, laminated, and got my centers ready to go.  I was anxious for my students to get started.  This packet is great because it has some things that are in color, and other materials that are in black and white so you are able to choose what you would like to print.  The packet was easy to print and prep.

One of the games we played was "Go Fish" with a twist.  The children were looking for multiples of 10.  Molly included a little "cheat sheet" which helped my children.  They quickly caught on that they were adding two numbers that equaled ten and gathering piles of those number partners.

I love the interaction this game provided and it was super easy to prep as well.  This will be an easy game to keep handy for my students to grab and play, ahem, I mean learn!

Another game we played was "Top it".  I like this packet because it had many activities for differentiation.  This is one of those games.  Students pick two cards and the highest card wins.  I put out base ten block cards to 30 and number cards to 30.  My strong students picked up the game quickly and went wild over it!  My students who need more support had fun, but it was a challenge.  In the future, I would only put this game out for certain learners and/or give certain groups cards to suit their own level.  I had all of my students participate in all of the activities because I wanted to see how they worked.  

"Ladybug Addition" was another fun activity that my students loved!  I laminated the mat and gave them large dice in dice.  They rolled the dice and put that number of dots on the ladybug - one side was the big die and the other side of the ladybug was the small die.  I handed out Expo markers so their work could be recorded on the page, and then it was transferred to the recording sheet provided. 

"Addition Crossout" was super fun!  Children worked in pairs and again rolled dice in dice.  The two numbers were added together and then partner A crossed that number off on the tower.  Partner B went and did the same thing.  The first person to cross out all of their numbers wins the game.  It was great to see my students so engaged in a meaningful partner activity!

"Double it!" was another great game.  All you need for this game is dice, crayons, and the recording sheet.  The children get one die and roll it.  Say a "3" is rolled.  They double it - so 3+3 is 6 and then they find the 6 on the page and color it.  Roll again.........Double it!..........roll again......Double it!......until the page is full!

Another activity we tried out of this great packet was "Math Mountain."  Think number bonds but instead of putting the manipulatives in the circles, you put them on the lines connecting the bonds.  See how it is like a mountain?  This was another great adding opportunity for my students to physically count the objects, as well as divide the objects on either side.  It helped them understand decomposing, adding, and even missing addends a little better.

The last activity we tried was a favorite of some of the kiddos because it involved food!  Molly created a few different pages for addition and subtraction stories.  I chose the subtraction story with a simplified layout.  I had some snacks left over from the 100th Day of School that we never used, so the children were given a certain amount of snack and then they drew that number on the mat.  As they ate, they crossed out the snacks on their board and recorded the equation.  Soon enough, they had eaten their entire snack and they were left with zero!  

There are so many activities in this packet that I haven't even gotten to try yet.  This is full of different skills that are good for review, a challenge, to work with whole group or centers, or to differentiate instruction.  You will be able to use so many parts of this packet and the prep is pretty easy too - bonus!

Molly is having a sale in her TpT store so you can get this product at a discount right now.  

For a chance to win this math packet, hop on over to my Kindergarten Planet Facebook page.  Make sure to like my page before entering to win.  Also, check out the rafflecopter at the end of this blog post to win this packet.  You should also like Molly on TpT, Instagram and Facebook so you can keep up with any new product she creates!

Be sure to check out Molly's blog post!!!!  She tried out my Rhyming Rocks! packet and you can read all about it and enter to win my packet on her blog and Facebook page!

In addition, I am having a sale in my TpT store to celebrate the product swap!  Make sure to stop on by!

There are also many other product swaps going on.  Be sure to hop around to different blogs and enter to win other amazing products!

You can try to win this awesome math packet from xoxokindergarten.  Enter the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway